Vogt, P. (2015) Self-organisation of conceptual spaces from quality dimensions. In Frank Zenker and Peter Gärdenfors (Eds.) Applications of Geometric Knowledge Representation (Synthese Library). Dordrecht: Springer.

Abstract This chapter presents a discussion on how conceptual spaces can evolve from a set of quality dimensions, and how these spaces can become shared among a population of cognitive agents. An agent-based simulation of Steels' Talking Heads experiment is presented in which virtual agents construct novel concepts, as well as a shared, simplified language from scratch. Simulations demonstrate that the structure of a conceptual space (i.e. from what quality dimensions it is composed) can evolve in a population of communicating agents. It is argued that the underlying mechanisms involve the following factors: the environment of the agents, their embodiment and cognitive capacities, self-organisation, and cultural transmission.